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While so many are Egypt’s great events and so fraught is its deep-rooted history with memorable days, of all days and events, the 6th of October rises out so lofty as Egypt’s most unforgettable, most valuable and most influential. Thus, Egypt will continue to celebrate the anniversary of the 1973 glorious victory, through which the 1967 setback was rectified, the honor and dignity of the nation regained, and the Egyptian armed forces were crowned with laurel. On that glorious day, Egypt’s armed forces regained their pride and self-confidence, as they had successfully completed a stupendous military feat, consummated mission impossible, thus deterring forces of aggression. Putting an end to the state of no-war, no-peace, the Egyptian Army had obviously managed to change the whole situation in the Middle East. It had proved to the whole world that the Egyptians were able to achieve a daring military action, based on courageous decision, careful planning and preparation, and valiant performance. This, as a matter of fact, involved a strategic, preemptive strike, crowning the sacrifices of the Egyptian people and their Armed Forces with an eye-catching victory that will ever remain a source of pride for the coming generations. On that great day, the will for challenge triumphed and the Egyptian people engaged most successfully in a battle of life or death.

Victory leaders

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On October 6, 1973, the Egyptian Armed Forces mounted a surprise attack against the Israeli army stationed in Sinai and the Golan Heights. As a result, Egypt regained full sovereignty over the Suez Canal and was able to recover part of Sinai. The October victory led to destroying the myth of Israel’s invincible army Preparations for the October victory began very early in 1968 with the war of attrition. After President Anwar al-Sadat assumed power in 1970 and Israel having rejected the Rogers Initiative, war was the only option to recover Sinai and Suez Canal. A surprise attack was carried on both the Egyptian and Syrian fronts. Intelligence Authorities in both countries relied on a plan to confuse the enemy.

At exactly 14:00 hours on October 6, 1973, 222 Egyptian fighters crossed the Suez Canal, undetected. Their target: radar stations, air defense batteries, fortified points on the Barlev line, oil refineries and ammunition depots. Meanwhile, Egyptian artillery across the Canal turned the front line into an inferno in what was a show of force not soon to be forgotten. 10,500 rockets were fired in the first 60 seconds at an average of 175 rockets/seconds. 1000 rubber boats crossed the Canal carrying 8000 soldiers who climbed the Barlev Line and stormed into enemy defenses.

The Egyptian Engineer Corps built the first bridge 6 hours after the war began. 8 hours later they cut a path into the Barlev Line, set up another 12 bridges and operated 30 ferries.

The success of the air strike, at the beginning of the war, made it possible for Egyptian soldiers to penetrate the Barlev Line in no more than six hours causing heavy losses among Israeli troops.

PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK – COMMANDER OF THE AIR STRIKE

But had it not been for the air bridge of military equipment and supplies launched by the US on October 10, the Israeli Army would have been heavily defeated.

Golda Meir devastated by the news of the capture of Bar lev line by the Egyptian army

On October 22, 1973, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 338 calling on all parties to stop fighting, to cease all firing and terminate all military activity and begin negotiations aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.

BBC DOCUMENTARY,6TH OF OCTOBER WAR

Raising Egyptian flags on all homes windows

The war demonstrated that:
• The Egyptians could mount a military attack, based on a brave decision, well-planned and properly-prepared.
• The myth of the invincible Israeli Army could be destroyed.
• The policy of imposing a status quo was invalid.
• Arab national security was threatened, a feeling which brought all Arabs together.
• Sinai should be reconstructed, linked to the Nile Valley and turned into a strategic region shielding Egypt from the east.
The Egyptian people, however, were not entrapped into domestic conflicts rather they joined hands with the army sharing up their capabilities and placing the liberation of land on top of all priorities. Thus, the armed forces had managed to shatter down the myth of invincible power as well as the security doctrines based on that power. They further dismantled all barriers, blockade and lines earlier set up to prevent the people from liberating their land. This gave proof to everyone that military supremacy was not an exclusive monopoly of a specific party. It also proved that good Egyptian military planning, indomitable courage of Egyptian warriors, and their belief in the nobility of their goals, were stronger and bigger than any gaps in capability and sophistication in equipment and military plant.

The will of peoples is much stronger than forces of oppression and suppression no matter how great.

President Sadat
Immortal wordsfromvictoryspeech

Peace with Israel :

On 20 November 1977, Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel officially when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem about his views on how to achieve a comprehensive peace to the Arab–Israeli conflict, which included the full implementation of UN Resolutions 242 and 338. He said during his visit that he hopes “that we can keep the momentum in Geneva, and may God guide the steps of Premier Begin and Knesset, because there is a great need for hard and drastic decision

Moments where time stopped : Sadat arrival to Israel

The Peace treaty :

The Peace treaty was finally signed by Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the Camp David Accords (1978), a series of meetings between Egypt and Israel facilitated by US President Jimmy Carter. Both Sadat and Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the treaty. In his acceptance speech, Sadat referred to the long awaited peace desired by both Arabs and Israelis.

The assassination squad was led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli after a fatwā approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman.Islambouli was tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad in April 1982.

The ill-fated peace talks denounced by both parties do little but provide a veneer of legitimacy to the rightward creep of Netanyahu’s apartheid regime.

Peace talks began in Paris on Friday, led by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, with an espoused aim to restart negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians that have repeatedly failed since the Jewish state was established in 1948, in the heart of ancient Arab lands.

The diplomats were joined by representatives from the Arab League, the European Union and several neighboring Arab states, but notably the meeting, designed to reestablish peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, included no representatives for either of the adversaries.

The Israeli Prime Minister publicly blasted the initiative as his country makes a hard shift toward more aggressive militarism against their Palestinian neighbors. In May, Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed controversial far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister to replace the more moderate Moshe Ya’alon. Reacting to the appointment, UN Middle-East envoy Nikolay Maladenov said on Wednesday that Israeli ministers are “killing hope” for peace, following comments by the Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, that a Palestinian state will never be allowed.

“As long as we are in the government, there will be no Palestinian state, there will be no settlement evacuations and we will not give any land to our enemies,” Shaked said on Tuesday.

The situation for Palestinians has grown more desperate in recent years, with childhood poverty increasing at a near exponential rate, people repeatedly dispossessed of their land and under constant bombardment by Israeli defense forces. The climate of violence and fear has been repeatedly noted as closely resembling the South African regime of apartheid, including remarks by former US President Jimmy Carter.

The Palestinian people have been devastated by efforts by Israeli officials to co-opt their leadership, providing victims with few options to voice their dissent to a global audience about the daily tragedy they endure.

Mass killings of Palestinians by IDF forces have given way to a rash of stabbings in Israel by beleaguered Palestinians. More peaceful approaches, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) program advanced by Palestinian leadership have had limited effect on Israel, with the world refusing to cut trade ties with the country and leading to ever-higher levels of poverty in Gaza and the West Bank.

On Thursday, Loud & Clear’s Brian Becker sat down with peace activist Miko Peled and political analyst Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich to discuss whether the Paris peace talks are about peace or if they are a fig-leaf to justify the status quo of Palestinian displacement.

Do the Paris peace talks have any significance or hope of success?

“Frankly the answer is no,” said Sepahpour-Ulrich. “Israel has never been interested in a political solution and the fact that we continue to hold these peace talks, with the first one in 1949, the Lausanne Conference, and many more since 1979.”

“This whole thing reminds me of what Desmond Tutu said about the missionaries – ‘They had the bible and we had the land, they told us to close our eyes and then they had the land and we were holding the Bible,’ and the same thing is true now with these peace talks,” she said.

“Nothing ever comes out of these talks and it tends to buy Israel time to further occupy Palestinian land and engage in incremental genocide,” stated the analyst. “All of these rounds of talks are just buying more time while the Palestinian land is shrinking and so is the number of Palestinian people.”

“If somebody is serious about creating peace then we need more than talk, we need action,” she said.

Why is there no focus in these talks on holding Israel accountable for settlements?

“Let me reframe the conversation for a second if I may. I believe that the only way to move forward is to recognize the following: Palestine was occupied in 1948 and a racist, apartheid regime known as Israel was established in Palestine. In 1967, the state of Israel completed that occupation of Palestine by taking a few small parts that it left out in the West Bank and Gaza strip that then calling it Israel, even though we know it is Palestine,” said Peled detailing the history of Palestinian displacement.

“The establishment of a single state with exclusive rights for Jewish people has been in place ever since and that is it. This idea that there is a Palestine different from Israel and Israel different from Palestine and that somehow the state of Israel will negotiate with a Palestinian entity for some sort of compromise within this framework is hallucination, it is science fiction,” he said.

“The only way to move forward is a complete condemnation of the racist, colonialist project that is called the state of Israel and to get rid of it just like apartheid was done away with in South Africa, with a democracy of equal rights, where Palestinians have all of their rights, the right of return is materialized, and this whole racist, colonialist project is done away with. That is the only way to move forward,” stated the activist.

Peled commented that hope for Palestinians will come not through talks, but through resistance, likening their situation to the South African apartheid. The activist praised Palestinian leadership for modeling their Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) effort on the successful struggle for liberation in South Africa, but considers the situation in the Middle East to be more perilous, with countries around the world refusing to join in solidarity by cutting off trade with Israel.

Sepahpour-Ulrich agreed that the commonplace notion of a two-state solution has always been a false cry for peace, and criticized Europe and the United States for allowing the oppression to continue.

“There is no question in my mind that there is no will to change the status quo, the Europeans and the Israelis and their trade has grown over the years. If you are under the belief that there needs to be a two-state solution or you think that this occupation needs to end, then you freeze your trade, you don’t allow it to grow,” she said. “The United States has been funding this occupation, so, what they are doing is giving lip service, and it is just propaganda, they are selling a false truth.”

“There is no reality to these peace talks. The world is being lied to,” said the analyst. “They are just biding their time to wipe Palestine off the map, which Google incidentally did in one instance.”

In a new interview, linguist Noam Chomsky warns that US President Barack Obama’s military buildup in Eastern Europe is threatening to destabilize the region.

“He has been more reluctant to engage troops on the ground than some of his predecessors and advisers, and instead has rapidly escalated special operations and his global assassination (drone campaign), a moral disaster and arguably illegal as well,” Chomsky said during a recent interview with Truthout, referring to Obama’s foreign policy.

“On other fronts, it is a mixed story,” he adds. “Obama has continued to bar a nuclear weapons-free (technically, WMD-free) zone in the Middle East, evidently motivated by the need to protect Israeli nuclear weapons from scrutiny.”

“By so doing, he is endangering the Nonproliferation Treaty, the most important disarmament treaty, which is contingent on establishing such a zone.”

But the biggest problem may be Washington’s actions in Eastern Europe.

The United States has spearheaded NATO’s gradual buildup in Poland and the Baltic states, citing “Russian aggression.” Upcoming military drills have been criticized by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov.

“We are convinced that these exercises carry a serious destabilizing component,” he told reporters on Thursday. “Their main goal is to continue the aggravation of tensions along the Russian borders.”

Obama’s policy on nuclear weapons is also worrying to Chomsky.

“His trillion-dollar program for modernizing the nuclear weapons system is the opposite of what should be done,” he said.

While treaties forbid the United States from expanding its nuclear arsenal, the upgrades include improved targeting systems, as well as adjustable yields, which could, in theory, make the weapons easier to use.

“These and other moves amount to a mixed story, ranging from criminal to moderate improvement,” Chomsky said.

While a new President will take office after the November elections, the philosopher doesn’t have much hope that things will change.

“Financialization has of course exploded during the neoliberal period, and the general policies, pretty much global in character, are designed to enhance private and corporate power,” he said. “That sets off a vicious cycle in which concentration of wealth leads to concentration of political power, which in turn yields legislation and administrative practices that carry the process forward.”

The UN refugee agency has criticized the deal struck between the EU and Ankara which seeks to send refugees back to Turkey. The UNHCR says the agreement will expose migrants to huge risks, as well as break EU and international laws on the right to protection.

Ankara offered to take back all those who cross through its borders into the EU, while resettling the same number of Syrian refugees in the EU. In return in asked for billions more in cash, as well as expedited talks on EU membership and a rapid implementation of visa-free travel. The 28 EU members agreed and the decision is set to be completed by March 17-18, pending more work by officials.

But according to the UNHCR, the decision is a “quick fix” that will create a fragmented flow of refugees all trying to find ways back into the EU.

Speaking at a UN briefing on Tuesday, Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR Europe Bureau Director, stressed that “collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under the European Convention on Human Rights. An agreement that would be tantamount to a blanket return of any foreigners to a third country is not consistent with European law, is not consistent with international law.”

Another key problem associated with the decision, according to the UNHCR, is that the refugee flow would be fragmented, resulting in disparate groups that are all trying to return to the EU. “As long as the conflict is not solved, it’s a myth to believe that the people will not try to leave. It may dissuade some people from leaving through that route, but it won’t dissuade everybody.”

On Europe’s commitment and its implementation so far, Cochetel believes the objective of resettling 20,000 refugees in the space of two years on a voluntary basis is still “very low,” not to mention Europe’s failure last September to relocate some 66,000 refugees from Greece. In fact, it failed on an epic scale, managing to relocate only 600, according to Cochetel’s previous statements.

While Turkey currently hosts three million Syrian refugees – the largest number worldwide – its current acceptance rates for those from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan are also “very low,” the UNHCR director told Swiss radio RTS, as cited by Reuters.

“Sending back people who would not have access to protection in Turkey poses a certain number of problems in terms of international law and European law,” he said. “I hope that in the next 10 days a certain number of supplementary guarantees will be put in place so that people sent back to Turkey will have access to an examination of their request [for asylum],” he added.

Similar concerns were voiced by the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which stressed that “too many details still remain unclear.”

UNICEF spokeswoman Sarah Crowe underlined that “the fundamental principle of ‘do no harm’ must apply every step of way.” For the particular agency, this applies first to the rights of children. They are open to all sorts of dangers, including trafficking, forced labor and other forms of exploitation.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International blasted Ankara’s enduring record of leaving refugees to cope alone. It called the EU decision “alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane,” noting in a Tuesday statement how Turkey has “forcibly returned refugees to Syria and [how] many refugees in the country live in desperate conditions without adequate housing.”

Amnesty’s European head, Iverna McGowan, believes that “by no stretch of imagination can Turkey be considered a ‘safe third country’ that the EU can cozily outsource its obligations to.”

Two suspects are down, with a third apprehended, during the manhunt for the shooters responsible for killing 14 people and wounding another 17 in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday.

Police confirm that two suspects have been “dealt with,” though one may still be on the run. Police confirm that two suspects are dead, one male, the other female, and that both were armed with assault rifles and handguns. These individuals were inside the black SUV. A third individual ran from the scene. Police have detained that individual, who remains unidentified, though it remains unclear if that person was involved in the shooting.

One of the suspects in the shooting has been identified as US citizen Syed Farook, MSNBC reports citing unnamed law enforcement officials.

“There is some connection between that name and the house they [police] are searching in Redlands, California, which is about 70 miles from LA, about 10 miles from San Bernardino,” MSNBC said.

NBC reported citing unnamed sources that another suspect in the Wednesday shooting is believed to be Farook’s brother.

Police feel confident that local area is now secure, but authorities are still trying to identify if other individuals may have been involved.

Police have also issued a search warrant for a home in nearby Redlands, California, which is in connection with the San Bernardino shooting, after receiving a tip. This led to a chase with the black SUV.

A spokeswoman for Loma Linda University Medical Center said the hospital remains on high alert. Five patients are being treated, two of which remain in critical condition, though she could not confirm if a police officer was one of the patients being treated. The hospital is not expecting any additional patients related to the shooting.

The hospital also received a bomb threat, according to the spokeswoman.

A police spokesman confirmed that one of the devices found inside the facility on Wednesday does appear to be an explosive.

The black SUV was stopped earlier on Wednesday. The drivers-side, passenger-side, and rear windows of the suspect vehicle were broken, though the cause for that damage is unknown. Suspects reportedly threw pipe bombs from the vehicle during pursuit.

The suspect vehicle was pinned between a pair of armored police vehicles, as police approached the black SUV inside a heavily armored, mobile shield.According to witnesses, policee

xchanged heavy gunfire with the suspects after the vehicle was stopped.

According to a police spokeswoman, one officer was also wounded during the exchange

In light of the shooting, flights coming into San Bernardino International Airport have been rerouted.

“There is a temporary flight restriction in place immediately west of the airport and that is impacting flights,” said Mark Gibbs, the director of aviation for the airport, according to the Washington Post.

Earlier on Wednesday, police responded to three gunmen who stormed a developmental disability facility and opened fire. At least 14 are dead, with another 17 injured. The suspects escaped in a black SUV.

“These people came prepared to do what they did as if they were on a mission,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters earlier.

Moscow has deployed its most advanced S-400 air defense system, said to have no equals globally, to guard the skies over Syria after a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syrian territory on Tuesday.

The S-400 Triumf (NATO codename SA-21 Growler) is an anti-aircraft and anti-missile system, which is capable of intercepting all types of modern air weaponry, including fifth-generation warplanes, as well as ballistic and cruise missiles at a maximum range of nearly 250 miles. It has a tracking range of over 370 miles.

The system uses three types of long- and medium-range missiles and can simultaneously engage as many as 36 targets.

In addition, the S-400 is the only missile complex in the world capable of hitting targets located beyond the horizon, defense expert Konstantin Sivkov told Radio Sputnik. The system is also well protected against electronic warfare.

MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. A Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft of Russia’s air group in Syria has crashed in Syrian territory, presumably, as a result of an attack from the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

The Defense Ministry said the plane was at an altitude of 6,000 meters. The pilots’ fate is unclear at the moment. According to early reports, both managed to eject themselves.

“A probe is in progress into the circumstances of the Russian plane’s crash. The Defense Ministry says the plane invariably stayed within Syrian airspace. Objective monitoring data confirm this,” the Defense Ministry said.

Earlier, some media claimed the plane that crashed in Syria had allegedly violated Turkish airspace and was shot down by Turkish Air Force planes.

Russian airstrikes against the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria started on September 30. Russia intensified its airstrikes against the terrorists after it was reported that the crash of the Russian A321 plane in Egypt was caused by a terrorist bomb exploding on board. Russia has involved long-range aviation in its air strikes and has enforced the air grouping deployed in Syria. Russia’s air grouping involves 69 aircraft, including Su-34 bombers, Su-24M and Su-25 attack aircraft, Su-30SM and Su-27SM3 fighters and Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.

France’s only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle was deployed in the Mediterranean late Saturday after a November 13 series of terrorist acts in Paris saw 130 killed and over 360 injured.

The Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group has claimed responsibility for the coordinated mass shootings and suicide bombings near a football stadium, in a concert hall and outside several restaurants in Paris.

Hollande imposed a nationwide state of emergency, since extended by French lawmakers. The presumed organizer of the Paris attacks, born in Belgium and suspected of training in Syria, was confirmed killed in an anti-terror raid in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis last week.

The UN Security Council voted on Saturday to adopt an anti-terrorism resolution drafted by France to “redouble and coordinate” efforts against ISIL.

A dispute between two groups of people in a New Orleans park Sunday escalated into a shooting that injured at least 16 people, police said late Sunday.

The shooting took place at around 6 p.m. local time after approximately 500 people had gathered at Bunny Friend Playground in the city’s 9th Ward to film a music video, the New Orleans Police Department said in a statement. Ambulances took 10 victims to area hospitals, and police later learned that another six victims had been taken to the hospital in private vehicles.

Photos of the scene showed emergency workers wheeling some of the wounded to ambulances on gurneys while other people who appeared to be in pain lay on the ground. No deaths were immediately reported and police had few details on the extent of the victims’ injuries.

Police spokesman Tyler Gamble told the Associated Press that the video was being made without a permit to use the park. He added that police were on their way to break up the crowd when the shooting took place.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison told reporters that officers were a block away from the park when they heard the gunshots and were flagged down by passersby.

Joseph Jordan was inside a house across the street from the park with his friend, who gave her first name as Raven, when they heard gunshots. Later someone called Raven and told her that her niece had been shot. The two rushed to the hospital to check on the 14-year-old, who had been shot three times in the leg.

Speaking of the hospital, Jordan said: “It’s still crowded back there.”

Other witnesses told The Times-Picayune newspaper that the gathering was part of an after-party that followed a neighborhood parade. One said the shooting “sounded like New Year’s Eve all over again.”

The paper reported that multiple witnesses saw a man with a silver machine gun fleeing the scene, but noted that the shooting continued as the man ran away.